Main
Natalie Z. Kerr
Data Scientist & Quantitative Ecologist
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Certificate of Applied Data Science
Cambridge, MA, USA
2023
Tufts University
PhD Candidate in Biology
Medford, MA, USA
2014–2019
University of Queensland
Bachelor of Environmental Science
St Lucia, QLD, Australia
2008–2012
Experience
Data Analytics Consultant
Pocket Prep
Durham, NC
2024-present
- Consultant for local company that develops an exam preparation app.
- Built random forest models to evaluate lead indicators of users’ passing their exams.
Assistant Research Professor
Duke University
Durham, NC
2022–present
- Lead scientist on a US federal grant.
- Coordinate funded research among 11 scientists across six institutions.
- Redesigned tertiary-level courses (e.g. Ecology of Human Health).
- Member of several Duke board and department committees.
- Advised four undergraduate students in data science projects.
- Statistics consultant for graduate and postdoctoral researchers.
- Awarded several fellowship awards.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Duke University
Durham, NC
2019–2022
- Built predictive spatial models for at-risk species under future climate.
- Produced quarterly and annual reports to stakeholders.
- Research aimed to inform cross-jurisdictional management.
- Invited to give five University seminars to a diverse audience with both analytical and non-analytical backgrounds.
- Statistics consultant for graduate and postdoctoral researchers.
Graduate Researcher
Tufts University & UC Davis
Medford, MA
2014–2019
- Data wrangling and analysis for projects with large longitudinal datasets.
- Developed novel statistical and modeling techniques for exploring high dimensional systems to solve optimization problems.
- Published six peer-reviewed publications; four were first author.
Selected Workshops & Teaching
Frequentist approaches to data analytics in R
Two-day workshop series funded by the EntSoc Early Careers Professionals initiative. GitHub
Virtual
2020
Ecological Models and Statistics
Undergraduate and graduate tertiary-level course covering Frequentist and Bayesian statistics.
Tufts University
2019
Exploiting the Dynamism of R Software
Half-day workshop at the Entomological Society of America Joint Annual Meeting
Vancouver, Canada
2018
Delta Method and Parametric Bootstrapping to accurately estimate variance in covarying model parameters
Half-day workshop series exploring msm::deltamethod and MASS::mvrnorm functions and applications.
UC Davis, California
2018
Selected Publications
Larger workers outperform smaller workers across resource environments: An evaluation of demographic data using functional linear models.
Ecology & Evolution. (2021). doi:10.1002/ece3.7239
N/A
2021
NZ Kerr, RL Malfi, NM Williams, EE Crone.
Developmental trap or demographic bonanza? Opposing consequences of earlier phenology in a changing climate for a multivoltine butterfly.
Global Change Biology. (2020). doi:10.1111/gcb.14959
N/A
2020
NZ Kerr, T Wepprich, FS Grevstad, EB Dopman, FS Chew, EE Crone.
Using statistics to design and estimate vital rates in matrix population models for a perennial herb
Population Ecology. (2019). doi:10.1002/1438-390X.12024
N/A
2019
S Ramula, NZ Kerr, EE Crone
Prioritizing management actions for invasive populations using cost, efficacy, demography and expert opinion for 14 plant species world-wide
J. Applied Ecology (2016). doi:10.1111/1365-2664.12592
N/A
2016
NZ Kerr, PWJ Baxter, R Salguero-Gómez, GM Wardle, YM Buckley.